Few kids who start slowly out of the gate, vertically speaking, were taken to specialists to see if they had a developmental problem that could be fixed, U of Penn researchers reported in the journal Pediatrics.

And girls got treated less often than boys, they found.

The study is in typically dense science-speak, but here's the basics: "Few short children were referred -- and even fewer girls were tested -- for potentially modifiable abnormalities associated with growth impairment, a retrospective study in four urban practices showed.

"Only 8% of children with short stature were referred for subspecialty care, according to Adda Grimberg, MD, and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

"And pediatricians ordered testing of the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor (GH/IGF) axis twice as often for boys as for girls (1.8% versus 0.9%, P<0.05), they reported in the April issue of Pediatrics."

So, parents of short kids, did you ever talk to your doctor about having your children checked?

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ABOUT THE WRITERS

TIM DARRAGH has been reporting and editing the news for 30 years, most of it at The Morning Call. For much of that time, he's been doing award-winning investigative and in-depth reporting projects. Tim created the three-year-long Change of Heart project, and wrote a series on the state's fractured food inspection system that led to widespread improvements in food safety. Meantime, that novice jogger you see plodding along the streets around Bethlehem Township? That would be Tim.